RURAL DEVELOPMENT RESEARCH PROGRAMS OF SOUTHERN 1862 AND 1890 LAND GRANT INSTITUTIONS: CHARACTERISTICS, NEEDS, AND PRIORITIES FOR THE 1970'S

Community/Rural/Urban Development,

THE FORMAL LOGIC OF TESTING STRUCTURAL CHANGE IN MEAT DEMAND: A METHODOLOGICAL ANALYSIS

In the past two decades, the profession has expended valuable resources testing structural change in meat demand with mixed results. Overlooked to date is a fundamental methodological problem that transcends all of the methods of testing for structural change. In this study, a formal logic framework is utilized in which methodological problems associated with any hypothesis test can be analyzed. Within this framework, it is proven that there is no valid test of any single hypothesis, including structural change. Because of this result, additional criteria from the methodology literature are then used to evaluate the literature on structural change in meat demand.logic, meat demand, methodology, structural change, Demand and Price Analysis,

DISCUSSION: HUMAN CAPITAL NEEDS OF BLACK LAND-GRANT INSTITUTIONS

Labor and Human Capital, Teaching/Communication/Extension/Profession,

CONSUMER'S SPECIE KNOWLEDGE AND THE VALUES OF NATURAL CHRISTMAS TREE CHARACTERISTICS

Consumers' willingness to pay for natural Christmas tree characteristics are estimated. Differences in willingness to pay for characteristics by specie knowledge and lack of specie knowledge are tested. Differences in willingness to pay for characteristics by specie are also tested. The results suggests that willingness to pay measures differ by these separations of the sample and, ceteris paribus, sellers of natural Christmas trees could benefit by altering characteristics in accordance with the results of these sample separation tests.Christmas trees, Hedonic, Sample separation, Demand and Price Analysis, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

Human capital and growth under political uncertainty

In this paper we show how political uncertainty may impede economic growth by reducing public investment in the formation of human capital, and how this negative effect of political uncertainty can be offset by a government contract. We present a model of growth with accumulation of human capital and government investment in education. We show that in a country with an unstable political system the government is reluctant to invest in human capital. Low government spending on education negatively affects productivity and slows growth. Furthermore, a politically unstable economy may be trapped in a stagnant equilibrium. We also demonstrate the role of a government retirement contract. Public investment in education and economic growth are higher when the future retirement compensation of the government depends on the future national income, in comparison with investment under zero or fixed retirement compensation.Endogenous growth

THE THEORY AND ECONOMETRICS OF HEALTH INFORMATION IN CROSS-SECTIONAL NUTRIENT DEMAND ANALYSIS

Understanding the role of health information in food and nutrient demand has become an important issue over the last decade. Endogeneity and measurement error are two empirical problems that are inherent in this type of analysis. While some type of instrumental variables estimation would appear the obvious solution, this paper provides several theoretical and empirical reasons why this is not the case in cross-sectional analysis. An alternative estimation strategy is pursued, an empirical example given, and the implications discussed.Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety,

STUDENT NUMBERS AND SUSTAINING COURSES AND FIELDS IN PH.D. PROGRAMS

Many agricultural economics departments are concerned about the vitality of their Ph.D. programs. A particular problem is insufficient student numbers to justify teaching certain courses or fields. As a consequence, much faculty time can be spent debating alternative program structures without any real idea of the likelihood that a proposed program structure will succeed. This article presents a framework for deriving some analytical and empirical results for alternative Ph.D. program structures. A downloadable program is used to generate some representative results that will hopefully help others minimize speculations and time spent in committee or departmental meetings.Ph.D. programs, student numbers, Teaching/Communication/Extension/Profession, A2, Q1,

Household Food Expenditures, Parental Time Allocation, and Childhood Obesity

The increased prevalence of childhood obesity is a major concern for society. This study aims at exploring the influence of the parents (especially parental time allocation choices) on childrens obesity-related health outcomes and examining the potential differences between the fathers and the mothers marginal effects. A household with two parents and one child is modeled. The household production theory and the collective household modeling structure are combined. The model treats the mother, the father and the child as three separate agents with individual preferences. The two parents interaction is modeled within the collective model framework by assuming that they will reach Pareto efficient resource allocation between them. In order to capture the dynamics between parents and the child, parents-child interaction is modeled in a two-stage Stackleberg game structure where the child is allowed to have certain decision choices of his/her own. This game structure allows us to explore the parental influence on the childs health outcomes while allowing the child to have influencing power in the household decision-making process. Based on this theoretical model, a general triangular system with one childs health production equation and five health inputs demand equations is derived and estimated. The empirical estimation is performed for three systems: pooled model, the younger children model (of age 9 to 11), and the older children model (of age 13 to 15). The empirical results shows positive relationship between total household monthly food expenditure and the childs BMI outcome. Both parents time spent with the child are important and both show negatively significant impact on the childs BMI outcomes in all models and the pool model confirms the statistical difference between paternal and maternal time spent with the child. Other mother-related variables show more influence on the childrens BMI. There exists a complementary relationship between mothers income and fathers time allocation. Fathers have more significant influence on household food expenditure compared to mothers. In general, mothers show more significant influence on the parental time allocation compared to fathers. The main contribution of this study is that it develops a general theoretical framework to capture the dynamics in parents-child interaction. Based on this theoretical model, empirical analysis and future work can be conducted in a theoretically consistent way.Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, Health Economics and Policy,

FORWARD MARKETING BEHAVIOR OF SOYBEAN PRODUCERS

Indiana, Mississippi, and Nebraska producers' forward pricing behavior was analyzed with Tobit models. Percent debt, percent soybean acres, risk aversion, market consultants, comfort level with futures and options, lenders' opinions, written marketing plans, crop insurance, and geographic location were significant in explaining the percentage of expected soybean production forward priced.Demand and Price Analysis, Marketing,